Nash Village Newsletter June 2020 All Saints’ Church “These are the best of times – these are the worst of times”. This quote from Charles Dickens could be used to describe our current situation. The coronavirus is turning many of our lives upside down, but through the hardship and anxiety, there is a neighbourliness and a sense of community across the country and, especially, in Nash that warms our hearts. Sadly, our church building has to remain closed, but Christ’s church is more than the buildings – it is the people, and we are all finding new ways to remain connected to each other and to God. Each Sunday the congregations of the churches in the Blackthorn Chase Benefice receive a sheet with a short homily/thought for the day and prayers. The Oxford Diocese is streaming a service every Sunday and many churches are doing likewise. Although the church is closed, we are continuing to maintain the churchyard so that villagers can continue to visit the graves of their relatives. In Nash, the prayer group that used to meet physically once a fortnight, now convenes virtually every Wednesday morning to pray for individuals and for our country. If you have a request please let Vicky Southby, Pam King or me know. If you are interested in the diocese service go to https://www.oxford.anglican.org/coronavirus-covid-19/livestream/ Where you can get a printed copy of the service as well if you wish. Newsletter: Clare Bourne is resigning as editor of the Nash newsletter due to other commitments. If any-one is interested in taking over from her please let me or Clare know. Margaret Hedges A Nash Lockdown Update In the normal course of events, for both the Nash and for the Whaddon Quarterly newsletter, I provide information of all the upcoming events in our village and Whaddon equally share what events are happening in our neighbouring village. Lockdown period has meant there has been very little actual events in a physical sense happening, where communities can get together. Our June fete has been cancelled, our July annual musical festival, NashFest has too. Our monthly PUMPs, Cafes and monthly events such as the cinemas and the quizzes and safari suppers have not happened now for three long months. What has become apparent is that since Lockdown started, a number of our villagers and our village overall have worked diligently to ensure that the sense of community is alive and well with some wonderfully kind acts and events happening. Please see below a list of all these activities from an article I originally put together for the Whaddon Quarterly for the middle of April and have since added to with the last month and a half’s events. 1 Teddy Bear Hunt This started on the first weekend of Lockdown when we were informed that the children’s play area must be closed; so we gave the children a teddy bear hunt to go on. Villagers took to it with great gusto and there were lots of teddies and rabbits put out, and changed regularly in many, many houses up and down the village. There were some fabulous themes and stories around some of them. As some of you may know, this is now a world-wide occurrence and we in Nash are pleased we are part of it! Daffodils Delivery A family on the High Street donated a beautiful box of daffodils on 25th March, which members of the Nash Support Group (a group which works on taking care of the village at this time) and for which myself and John Hamilton took responsibility, delivered to all our people who we want to take extra care of. Any remaining daffodils were left at the front of the family's house for village residents to select and enjoy Yoga by Breathe Happy Shiti Manghani and her family moved into the village recently and Shiti’s start-up wellbeing company Breathe Happy has offered a number of community online sessions for village residents to join, to enhance resilience - including women’s and men’s sessions and for our more senior residents. Her company’s website, where you can check out the schedule is www.breathehappy.uk Postman Andy Thank You! This was generated by Gi Sierant who wanted to thank our postman Andrew, who does so much more than just deliver the post – it then took on a life of its own. There were over 30 houses across the village that participated on 8th April and a video was then pulled together by Michelle Crack and Priyanka Shekar. This featured on ITV Anglia – wow, fame for Nash! – on Thursday 16th April. Here is a link to the video: https://youtu.be/s5jXspNW_H4 NHS Clap and Song We were all out religiously every Thursday, showing our appreciation with our clapping hands, bells, whistles, saucepans, lids and spoons. Anything we can use to make a big noise, to say THANK YOU to our carers. On Thursday 16th April, we had a very special occurrence with Evie Doran (one of our young residents) singing a beautiful version of Stand by Me on Thornborough Road; naturally she wore her nurse's uniform. Evie is a 2nd year nursing student and although she cannot be with her colleagues during this time, she wanted to join them in solidarity. Do take a look at the video via this link: https://youtu.be/H7epZyw5TN8 My understanding is that at last count, the video has had over 100 shares and 10,000-plus views – how phenomenal, Go Evie! Easter Celebrations Happy Easter Nash Treasure Hunt Over the Easter Weekend, a number of houses put out letters spelling Happy Easter Nash! They had Easter pictures next to them. This brilliant idea came from Nadia Howard who has two little ones; it was greatly enjoyed by all the younger families who participated – I think some older ones enjoyed it too! Easter Gardens Beautiful Easter Gardens were created and displayed by a number of our church community. These focused on Easter not just being about chocolates and bunnies. Pam King's and Vicky Southby’s were placed on their front drives where normally they may be in the church; this allowed more of the community to see how gorgeous the gardens are as well as sharing in the Easter spirit 2 Project Easter Bunny The Easter Bunny put in an appearance on Easter Sunday! Working in conjunction with select members of the Community Cafe Team (Caroline Mills, Gi Sierant, Jane Waring, Mark Richardson, Marilyn Malarkey and Ruth Meardon) the bunny group organised a creation of little cellophane goodie bags of cakes. The goodie bags were adorned with crocheted hearts, kindly done by Angie T in the village. Angie made an additional 40+ hearts overnight; quite amazing! The goodie bags were delivered very early on Easter Sunday morning to all the people who we want to take extra care of during this period. We also included younger families with children under the age of 15, and who the Bunny was aware of. The Bunny, assisted by Ruth & Robert Meardon and myself, made the journey all around the village; leaving his footprints as well as gnawed-up carrots on many of the village green spaces. Name the Bear Easter Competition Marilyn Malarkey, who would have run our Good Friday Easter Café, along with myself, provided a lovely rainbow-coloured Build-a-Bear Rabbit; this for a Name the Bear Competition which we ran on Facebook. It was won by a village resident. The Rabbit’s name, for those interested, was picked out as Fluffy! Easter Egg Thank You! A further lovely gesture came in the form of a contribution of 20 Easter Eggs to the village by the daughter of a village couple (who wished to remain anonymous) to be given as thank-you gifts to the Community Lunches, Dr Shirley Heywood Coffee Mornings and Community Cafe volunteers. These were distributed in the village to the very delighted recipients on Easter Sunday. Quizzes Our resident quiz master, Phil Doran, who runs our quarterly quizzes for Nash, has undertaken to provide a weekly quiz (family friendly) to keep the boredom at bay. We have had eight great quizzes in our inboxes so far. Should you wish to receive the quizzes, please contact Phil. PUMP - never fear, the beer is here! Our PUMP team procured some good ale to be provided to our thirsty drinkers; this to keep the Nash Spirit alive - even during Lockdown! Barry Wyke took ownership of the beer to be divvied out to buyers at a collection point Refuse Collectors Thank You! This motivation again came from Gi Sierant, and we duly put our ‘Thank Yous’ out over the bin collection week of 14th April. Many households made pictures for our refuse collectors, or chalked thanks on our roads or walls. Our very own Bucksy’s as one resident called the ‘artwork’ Happy Birthday Doorstop Greetings We have taken to (in a responsible and socially-distancing way) and on our daily exercises, sing Happy Birthday to anyone we know who is celebrating a birthday during this unusual time. I am aware of many, many birthday’s that have been accommodated in this manner, including both an 18th and a 21st! Photo competition For three weeks of Lockdown, Andy Campbell held a Facebook photo competition. This was designed to engage both the grown-ups and the children. Different themes were chosen every week and winners awarded best photographer each week for the adult and the children’s category. Winners included Sue Hayward, Hollie Smith, Sandra Firth, Ruth Meardon and Max Jurewicz 3 NHS Banners David Ogle, via his company Format Graphics kindly donated 3 very large Thank You to the NHS and Key Workers banners to the village.